The Trials & Tribulations of Trying to Conceive when its just not happening (12m+)

picklekin

Fingers, eyes, toes.. all firmly crossed for you FairyDust.

chocoholic_chick

Keeping everything crossed for you fairydust xx

Hope you're all doing well, sorry I've lost track of how everyones doing a little, I needed some "me" time but hope you're all OK.

I'm doing so much better now, took a week or so for the bloating and chest pains to go, still feel a little funny but other than that OK. So back to having a "normal" life for a month or so before it all starts up again!

Fairy_dust

Thanks everyone :grouphug:

I've only went back a few pages to catch up but poor you Choc with OHSS, I have heard that it's really painful (it's bad enough with the normal post EC bloating) and it must have been really scary. Glad you are feeling better now Having 4 on ice is excellent, will you be having a single or double transfer when the time comes?

Picklekin Good luck with the adoption process, I hope everything goes well. Have they given you a timescale for how long everything should take?

Tea Glad you are enjoying the Brownies, it sounds like you are having a lot of fun. Also I take my hat off to you as I don't think I could do anything like that with children while I don't have my own. It would just be too hard.

Glaswejen That's fantastic news about the mitochondrial transplant. It is amazing what they can do nowadays, I wonder how far advanced IVF will be in the next 20 years

Sorry for those that I've missed, it's hard to keep up with what stage everyone is at. Probably as there are a lot of us on here sadly xx

ElephantLovesMe

Hi guys missed lots over the last week but just caught up on everything. Hope everyone is well. Had clinic appt today and AF still didn't show up, so got tablets to induce the period, had an internal scan and there is a cyst on one of my ovaries ( hoping it will go away and not cause us any problems) So all in all we are running a month behind schedule but I know the end result will be the same just frustrating! Appt booked on 12th May for a scan after AF and then fingers crossed injections start that week too.

Hugs and loves to all

mogwai

Hello all, thought I should join this thread as we have been trying for 16 months now for our second with no luck. Took 9 months to conceive our first so I expected a long wait but I think we (I!) are getting desperate now! Im 35 and we want 3 sprogs so feeling a bit pressured to conceive second which probably isn't helping

Not doing much other than checking for ovulation with OPKs and bd around fertile period (usually twice in that 5 day window )

Just wanted to ask about fertility treatments - what is the order of treatments when you begin aided conception treatments, is it iui, ivf then icsi?

Also, can you get fertility treatment on the nhs if you have already had one child? My dr mentioned clomid but said my dh needs to go in first and be checked over as I have had blood tests etc and all came back fine.. Thanks if anyone can give any insight!

pinkteapot

Hi mogwai. Hope your stay here is short.

Things vary by area but where I am, we both had to go to the GP after trying for 12 months. I had to have blood tests and DH had to give a sample. The results of all this went off with our referral to a consultant at the local hospital. They do some more tests to see if there's any other problems with you (DH gets off the hook as testing a sample is all that needs doing for the bloke!).

What treatment follows depends on the findings. For "unexplained infertility" - what you're 'diagnosed' with if all tests are clear - you go straight to IVF in most areas as as IUI has been shown not to help. IUI is used for certain fertility problems.

IVF/ICSI - they're the same thing except for how fertilisation occurs. With IVF, the eggs and sperm are left in a dish overnight to get jiggy. With ICSI sperm are hand-injected into the eggs. You're not referred for one or the other. You're referred for IVF and the IVF clinic decide (sometimes on the day) which to do. Each is the same, medically, from your perspective.

Now for the bad news. In my area, IVF is only funded by the NHS if you have never had any children.

That is just my area and every area is different in terms of their criteria for funding IVF, and how many cycles (attempts) they'll fund. Search to see which CCG you come under here:

https://www.alliescomputing.com/innovation/clinical-commissioning-group-ccg-lookup

Then Google your CCG name and IVF to find their current criteria.

mogwai

Wow pinkteapot thanks for the detailed info, I had a look and my CCG don't offer IVF if the couple have a living child I will speak to my dr about what else can be done but I guess we would have to consider privately funding IVF if we want to go down that route..

My dr mentioned clomid but not sure if that would help if I wasn't having issues with ovulation..

Good luck to you ladies esp that have been at this a while it's tough and so stressful.. My sister and best friend are pregnant with their second (we all had our first around the same time) so it's consuming my thoughts a lot atm

pinkteapot

Personally, I wouldn't bother with Clomid. In my area they still make you take it for six months if you have unexplained IVF, even though NICE say it's ineffectual unless there's a known problem with ovulation. All it did for me was put me in a bad mood for six months! They use it to fob you off and hope you get knocked up before they have to fork out for IVF. It is a good drug for the conditions it's intended for, but not if you have a normal cycle and ovulation.

We've been trying for our first for four years and had one unsuccessful cycle of IVF, and my first nephew is due in June. One of the things I hate most is that I should be so excited about him but my own sadness has ruined it for me.

Fairy_dust

Hi Mogwai

Pink gave you some good info, hopefully you won't need to go down the IVF route. Even though you are getting positives on your OPKs doesn't necessarily mean that you are ovulating it just indicates that there is a surge in the LH. The best way to know if you are ovulating is by a blood test to test the progesterone levels. It's called a 21 day blood test but depending on how long your cycles are it could be on day 23, day 27 etc. If your cycles are normally every 31 days then day 21 would be too early for the progesterone level but it would be day 24 (it's seven days after ovulation & 7 days before your period starts, I'm hoping that I've not confused you here :rotfl:). Other blood tests are on days 1-3 which test your FSH, T4, Prolactin and I think LH too. Your OH will have to provide at least one sample sometimes two over a period of time to check if there are any differences.

Other tests that I've had are chlamydia swabs, lap & dye, hysteroscopy, pelvic ultrasound and internal scans. Men have it so easy!!! . We are unexplained so I've never been on clomid or had iui, we just went straight to ivf. Our trust is the same that you wouldn't get funding if you already have a child. We just self funded this cycle (it's our 4th) and it was £4500, it varies on cost between each trust. We don't get an anaesthetic at our one just temazepam & fentanyl so that's why it's a lot cheaper than other places that do give you a general anaesthetic.

Good luck xx

mogwai

Thanks so much ladies, I was thinking clomid was a bit useless if I didn't have problems with ovulation. I've had the blood tests done twice once before my ds was conceived and once recently after a year of trying for second - seems to come back ok, so ovulating normally etc.

I also don't fancy being in a bad mood for 6 months! Poor dh had it bad enough with my pmt mood swings which thankfully under control with Angus castus.
Re IVF - is it very stressful and painful? We're prepared to self fund but would obviously prefer it happened naturally, just thinking how much longer to give it trying naturally before going down that route. Other things I'm thinking about are acupuncture (though I did this first time round and didn't conceive those 3 cycles I did it), keep up supplements etc. don't want to risk NTNP as did this for a few months and am feeling like its a waste of cycles.

Congrats on your first nephew due pinkteapot my mum is adamant that when you are trying you need to be around babies as it induces pregnancy happy hormones - who knows!